Amino Communications announced at the Supercomm show in Chicago that it will begin to supply its first MPEG-4 set-top box next month.

Designed for internet protocol television services, the AmiNET124 uses its single digital signal processor to support the MPEG-4 AVC compression scheme, otherwise known as H.264, together with the necessary IPTV support software.

“The AmiNET124 is the first truly cost-effective H.264 set-top box and will at last enable telcos to make volume deployments of H.264,” said Karthik Ranjan of Amino.

The use of MPEG-4 allows telcos to deliver television over longer telephone lines, or offer two or more video streams per household, where previously only one may have been possible due to limited bandwidth.

Some other set-top box suppliers have been using dedicated decoders to support MPEG-4. Pace recently showed its first high-definition MPEG-4 set-top box.

Based on the same diminutive design as previous MPEG-2 products, the latest Amino box is also compatible with a recently announced ReadyLinks SmartFoot adapter, which allows multiple set-top boxes to be linked together using existing coaxial cables already present in many homes. Amino describes the SmartFoot as “a giant step” towards customer self-installation.

Coaxsys is also showing a similar mechanically integrated design

Supercomm takes place in Chicago from 6-9 June.

www.aminocom.com
www.ready-links.com
www.coaxsys.com
www.supercomm2005.com